Verghese Kurien

Verghese Kurien (26 November 1921 – 9 September 2012) was an Indian dairy engineer and social entrepreneur who led initiatives that contributed to the extensive increase in milk production termed the White Revolution.

Kurien was born on 26 November 1921 in Calicut, Madras Presidency, British India (now Kozhikode, Kerala, India) to P. K. Kurien in a Malayali Anglican Christian family.

His father was a government civil surgeon.

Kurien did his schooling at Diamond Jubilee Higher Secondary School, Gobichettipalayam, Tamil Nadu when his father worked at the government hospital there.

Kurien graduated in physics from University of Madras in 1940 and received his masters in mechanical engineering from University of Michigan in 1947.

He graduated in physics from Loyola College affiliated to University of Madras in 1940 and received bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy in 1943.

His father died when he was 22 years old and he moved under the tutelage of his maternal grand-uncle Cherian Matthai in Trichur.

He wanted to join the Indian army as an engineer but joined Tata Steel Technical Institute, in Jamshedpur as per the wishes of his mother from where he graduated in 1946.

Kurien applied for a scholarship provided by the Government of India and chose to study dairy engineering.

He was sent to the Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry in Bangalore where he spent nine months before being sent to United States on a government scholarship.

Earlier in 1946, Patel had setup a cooperative established in 1946 at Kaira as a response to the exploitation of small dairy farmers by traders and agents who set arbitrary milk prices on behalf of Polson which had an effective monopoly in milk collection from Kaira.

Kurien wanted to quit the government job and leave Anand but was persuaded by Patel to stay with him and help with his dairy cooperative.

Kurien developed the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited (KDCMPUL) further which later became known as Amul.

Milk collection was decentralised and was directly procured from farmers at villages as a part of cooperatives.

Kurien and Patel were supported by then Home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who sent Morarji Desai to help organise the farmers.

Kurien and Tribhuvandas Patel worked on the belief that economic self-interest of all sections of the village-society would make them align together to grow their cooperative and remove caste or class conflicts.

The cooperative dairying venture became popular and started attracting interest nationally.

He graduated with a master's degree in mechanical engineering from University of Michigan in 1948.

Kurien had stated that he studied metallurgical and nuclear engineering, disciplines likely to be of far greater use to the soon-to-be independent India and to himself though he was sent on the only government scholarship left in dairy engineering.

He went to Australia later when he learnt dairying which would help him set up the Amul dairy later.

In 1949, Kurien was sent by the Government of India to its run a experimental creamery at Anand where he set up the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited in 1950 which later became Amul.

Amul organised dairy farmers in the villages as a part of a cooperative and linked them to consumers directly.

The dairy cooperative was successful in increasing milk production as consumers paid in cash to dairy farmers who controlled the marketing, procurement, and processing of milk and milk products as the owners of the cooperative.

In 1949, Kurien was sent by the government of India to its experimental creamery at Anand in Bombay province (current Gujarat) on a five year term as an officer in the dairy division.

He spent the weekends in Bombay where he volunteered to help Tribhuvandas Patel with modifying the dairy equipments and processing of milk procured from local farmers.

In 1956, Kurien visited Nestle in Switzerland at the invitation of the commerce and industries minister to ask them to reduce imports to India and involve more Indians in processing local milk but was met with a refusal stating that condensed milk production could not be left to the natives.

On returning, he increased the production of condensed milk at Amul, the import of which was banned by Government of India two years later.

H. M. Dalaya, who Kurien persuaded to stay back at Anand after a visit from United States helped develop a process of making skim milk powder and condensed milk from buffalo milk instead of from cow milk.

In India, buffalo milk was plentiful, while cow milk was in short supply and Amul competed successfully against Nestle and later against Glaxo for baby food.

Jawaharlal Nehru, then Prime minister, also cut imports of butter in steps with Kurien promising and delivering an incremental increase of his production to eliminate the dependency on imported butter, especially from New Zealand.

During the Sino-Indian War in 1962, production had to be diverted to the Indian armed forces which led Polson to gain market share.

He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1964 and World Food Prize in 1989.

In 1965, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was established with Kurien as the head to replicate the Anand co-operative scheme nationwide.

In 1979, he founded the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) to groom managers for the cooperatives.

Kurien helped set up similar cooperatives across India which made dairy farming one of the largest self-sustaining industries and employment generator in rural areas.

He was conferred the Order of Agricultural Merit by the French Government in 1997.

This led to a multi-fold increased milk output over the next few decades which helped India become the world's largest milk producer in 1998.

For his contributions in increasing the dairy output, Kurian is known as the "Father of the White Revolution" in India.

The co-operative model was later applied successfully to other industries such as edible oils.

In 1999, he received Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour.